Epidemiology and mortality of burns in the South West of Iran

Burn injuries still produce a significant morbidity and mortality in Iran. This study was carried out to analyze the epidemiology, mortality, and current etiological factors of 2043 burn patients who were admitted to the burn centers in the Fars province during 4 years (1994-1998). There were two burn centers in the Fars province serving 3817036 people over an area of 124,000 km(2). The overall incidence rates of hospitalization and death were 13.4 and 4.6 per 100000 person-years. The mean age was 21.9 years, and 51% of patients were children under 19-years-old. The highest rates of hospitalization and death were observed in the elderly (80 years). Also young females (20-29 years) had a high rate of hospitalization. Thus, 55% of the patients had BBS less than 40%. Burn injuries were more frequent and larger with higher mortality in females than in males (P<0.0001). There was also statistically significant correlation between age groups, gender, and BBS with mortality rate (P<0.0001). Flame was the most common etiology of burns. There was also significant correlation between age groups and type of burns (P<0.0001). Suicide attempts for all the patients > or = 11 years were the cause of 41.3% (256/620) of the burns involving women and of 10.3% (40/388) of the burns involving men. The overall case fatality rate was 34.4%. The mortality rate was significantly higher for self-inflicted burns (78%) than for accidental burns (26.7%). Most of the lesions requiring hospital admission occurred during the winter months. Factors associated with an increase in mortality were suicidal burns, burn size, age, and flame burns. Most of the burn injuries were caused by domestic accidents and were, therefore, preventable.